Using DigitalNZ and EPIC for inquiry learningidea.gif

Presenter - Vicki Stephens, School Library Adviser
Email: vicki.stephens@dia.govt.nz

Authentic activities provide students with the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of information sources representing a range of information / opinions. This practical hands-on session will explore a wealth of quality NZ digital content – photographs, cartoons, posters, video/sound clips, paintings, drawings, artworks, maps, and articles etc – to engage students’ critical thinking skills in making judgements / choices as part of the learning process, which underscores the spirit of inquiry. Plus, we’ll delve into the EPIC suite of databases, hosted on TKI, which contains thousands of international resources, including full-text articles, biographies and reference works.

The National Library has a wealth of digital resources for you to utilise with your class.
This session is designed to give you a quick overview of the free, quality resources we have to offer.

Services to Schools
Website: http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/
Our website provides support for both your library and classroom.
Book Loans are free via our Curriuculum Services Department:
http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/curriculum-services-who-are-we

Online Resources
High Interest Topics from Services to Schools website
http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/high-interest-topics
Sites collated by Curriculum Services from Teacher requests.
Quicklinks for Schools Students: http://www.natlib.govt.nz/students
All our student resources are listed on this page.

Highlighted resources include:
AnyQuestions: Helps students to find useful, accurate, online information for homework.
Also includes UiaNgāPātai.co.nz a Te Reo version of AnyQuestions.co.nz.
ManyAnswers is a database containing hundreds of previously asked questions and links to the information found in AnyQuestions.
Tag Clouds from ManyAnswers can be Filched to use on your own site.

For example - Embed this code and create your own 'Cloud' gadet on your homepage:

<p><strong>Many Answers - Our Keywords</strong><br /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://manyanswers.co.nz/gettagcloud.ashx?tags=our"> </script></p>

Many Answers - Our Keywords



International Children's Digital Library
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
Digitised children's books from here and overseas in all languages including Maori.

EPIC (databases for schools)
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/epic
Especially: Encyclopedia Britannica K-8 & K-12 - includes a wealth of multimedia games and resources.
Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre - for fulltext local content in newspapers and magazines
.
Matapihi (multimedia resources from museums and art galleries throughout NZ)
http://www.matapihi.org.nz

Papers Past (historical NZ newspapers)
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/

DigitalNZ (for ALL NZ content)
A one-stop-shop for all digial NZ content.
http://search.digitalnz.org

Services to Schools, Advisory Service is free to all Schools.
If you would like help and support for your School and Library or would like to know more about our online resources please don't hesitate to contact me.

Vicki Stephens
Library Adviser
Services to Schools - Hamilton Centre
National Library of New Zealand
Phone 07 856 9743
Mobile 027 222 7733
Email: vicki.stephens@dia.govt.nz